Monday, March 02, 2009

@Wretchard,The Leeches clip is a brilliant find, well done. BTW, what are the criteria for closing a thread or leaving it open indefinitely?

@whiskey,Obama is different than a garden variety crook like Blago or young Burris. Because he sees himself as outside of the system that he is manipulating. Most people cannot see the forest they are in and tread a path before them. Minorities often prosper because they can dispassionately observe the majority and meet needs that were not perceived. Think of how the Koreans revolutionized the grocery business in New York or how Cole Porter transformed the language of heterosexual love. Obama was groomed from an early age by everyone, his Grandmother, his Mother, the Madrassa and Uncle Frank to see himself as a critical alien to American society. He is truly a game changer because the body politic found itself lacking the basic defense mechanisms that would have derailed any other candidate as unqualified and emotionally untested as he was. He resembles The Mule in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

@Mongoose,The distinction between Capitalism and "Resource Management Systems" seems forced. Every economic system favors certain political and social structures and vice a versa. Marx was not completely wrong on this. Feudalism was a resource management system linked to particular patterns of agriculture and land tenure as well as a hierarchical social structure that ossified over time. Capitalism fits well with a form of meritocratic Republicanism. Socialism supports and is supported by a patronal Oligarchism.

Two items come to mind. First on topic sort of I recently attended a meeting of the New York Young Republicans, I am the world’s oldest Young Republican, where we had a talk by a Columbia Prof. named Andrew Gelman whose book “Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State” points out that while rich people do vote Republican, rich states do vote Democratic. The current policies are making states poorer, which should favor Republicans and despite the “progressive” nature of the expanded tax burden I predict that income distributions will become more not less sharp, also favoring Republicans. On the other hand the numbers of poor people will increase which favors democrats.

The other issue and Off Topic is the administrations apparent willingness to toss Poland under the bus along with the missile shield for help dealing with Iran. In conjunction with the tussle between SecDef Gates and Admiral Mullen over how fast Iran can screw the parts of a bomb together we have a potential apocalypse in the making.